Deceptive Brotherly Intervention
by gothraven89
Summary: I'm taking the events of Scarecrow and Faith and making them to a ful AU 180. Sam has ulterior motives in getting Dean to leave him behind. Sam didn't mean the words back in the Asylum but, he did mean it when he said he'd die for Dean. PLEASE REVIEW!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Supernatural or whatnot, it is all property of the CW11 network. So don't sue and please don't be offended by the language cause it's gonna be colorful to say the least.

_Deceptive Brotherly Intervetion_

Chapter 1

The night air was anything but calm and peaceful, in fact it was highly charged with anger and exasperation as two men stood glaring at each other on the empty ashault roadway.

Then, one young man, the one with a brown leather jacket and spikey hair turned and stomped back to the 1967 Chevy Impala and roughly yanked the driver's side door open as he yelled back at the other guy.

" I'm takin' off!" Shouted Dean Winchester angrily.

" That's what I want you to do!" Yelled back Sam Winchester, his voice sounding just as angry.

Dean let out a snarl and sent his little brother one final, baleful glare before he climb into the Impala and slammed the door shut.

The shrill sound of tires screaming filled the chilly air as Dean floor the accelerator, the muscle car careening away down the blacktop, leaving behind the person who was supposed to be riding shot gun in it's wake.

As he watched his brother drive away, the car they'd both grown up in disappearing into the night, Sam let the fake fascade of anger he'd put up fall away from his face. A wave of cold desolation washed over him as he stood there...

Alone.

Sam let out a shaky breath as he blinked his eyes furiously to stave off the tears that were threatening to spill out in torrents. With a lingering, longing look at the nw empty road, Sam turned and began walking in the opposite direction. The cold air was making him feel even more like crap as it bit at the exposed skin of his face and hands.

" I lied, I don't want you to take off. I wanna stay with you but I can't, not after what happened back at the Asylum and... I have to protect you from what I saw, I have to save you Dean." Thought Sam as he too was swallowed up by the night, the place he'd seen in a secret nightmare he'd kept hidden from Dean being his destination.

And he knew he had to hurry because in a few days time, a pair of siblings, a little boy and a little girl were gonna need to be saved from the murderous clutches of a bloodthirsty Rawhead. ( I don't know what that thing was so, just fill in this part with your head if you can. Just know that it was one fugly SOB.)

As he walked, a few silent tears escaped Sam's moss green eyes, much to his chagrin.

Sam sped up his pace and scrubbed roughly at the tearstains on his cheeks. A plan was forming in his head as to how to dispose of the creature by himself.

Sam walked, knowing that he was headed for certain death and that a few minutes ago was the last time he'd ever see Dean.

But, his heart didn't crumble for himself, it crumbled with knowing that, a few minues ago was also most likely the last time Dean would ever see him...

Alive.

Sam was willingly heading for place, were death would be patiently waiting with open arms.

He was heading for death.

A death that was actually meant for the big brother he'd shot in the chest with rocksalt the day before, the big brother he'd just tricked into leaving him behind.

But to Sam, all that mattered now was that Dean was gonna be as far away from him as possible, so he wouldn't be there to get fatally injured, he wouldn't be there to stop Sam from taking fate into his own hands.

Now all Sam could do was hope that Dean would someday forgive him for this.

But at the moment.

He needed to hurry.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own anything Supernatural, it is all property of the CW11 Network, and whatnot, so don't sue me, please.

Chapter 2

Sam let a small sigh escape him as he trudged into the town near the rundown house he seen in that horrible nightmare. He'd had this hellish dream a full five nights before the whole Roosevelt Asylum debaucle.

He'd hitched a ride to this town and had been dropped off a quarter of a mile outside the town. It'd cost him a precious day to get here, leaving him only twenty-four hours to prepare.

Sam screwed his eyes shut tightly and shook his head as memories of what he'd done to his brother a mere day before came crashing back. Yeah, he'd been whammied by the psychotic spirit of the good Dr. Ellicot. But, that freaky spooks funky supernatural mojo merely ampliphied the feelings that already pre-existed within his heart.

Sure, at the time, he hadn't downright told Dean that he hated him, he hadn't said " I hate you Dean." But, who in their right mind says they love their big brother by shooting him square in the chest with a shotgun round of rock salt, and then after that picks a fight and hurts said brother further by basically manipulating him into thinking they didn't want to be with him, to be my his side anymore and part ways in the dead of night?

With another soul weary sigh and his very posture exhuding how down he was truely feeling, Sam trudged down the street of the quiet town, the small motel being his destination.

He only had twenty-four hours to prepare to stop that RawHead from turning two innocent kids into it's next meal.

Using a fake credit card from the Winchester stash, Sam checked himself it a small room and found it to be surprisingly clean and well kept. Sam took a quick shower before he immediately set to work researching. With each hour that passed, Sam's eyes darted more and more to the back of weapons Dean had roughly shoved into his arms last night.

More specifically, in his mind he could see the two Taser guns he'd skillfully sneaked into the bag the day after he'd had his premonitory nightmare and before Roosevelt Asylum had come in and royally fucked up his relationship with his older sibling. The weapon when used, would shoot twin projectiles that were barbed at the tips. These barbs latch onto the target and send upwards of one hundred- thousand volts of electricity into whatever target they hit.

It was the same weapon that had been the instrument of Dean's death in Sam's nightmare.

A shiver ran up Sam's spine as images of Dean laying in cold, muddy water with his body arching grotesquely as one hundred-thousand volts of electricity from one of the afore mentioned Taser guns coursed through him before he went utterly limp.

And it was Sam's assumption... Dead.

Sam shook his head and blinked furiously against the burn behind his eyes as he refocused his attention back tp his laptop. He kept on researching until the need for food could no longer be ignored.

He put his jacket on and headed out into the now afternoon sun and made his way to the diner a couple of blocks from the motel.

He ordered a few cheeseburgers to go and when the white paper bag appeared, he paid for it in cash and was out the door and back in his room within minutes.

Naturally, he was situated infront of his computer, pouring over all the info he could find on the web about Rawheads, this time while he was hungrily devouring cheese burgers in very rapid succession.

He couldn't help but see the forshadowing.

This could very well be his last meal seeing as to what might happen when he went after the Rawhead...

Tonight.

With growing dread, Sam kept on researching, with his eyes were once again shifting to the bag of weapons, and a feeling of dark, contradicting emptiness within the pit of his burger-filled stomach.

Meanwhile, on a highway deep in the American woods...

Dean Winchester sat in a very foul mood behind the wheel of his beloved black 1976 Chevy Impala.

He was on his way to the town his rather illusive father had called and told him and Sam to go check out because of suspicious disappearances.

Well, Dean was on his way and Sam was noticably absent from his customary seat, riding shotgun.

" Moronic, self-righteous little brat." Hissed Dean under his breath as he drove, a frown seemingly to have been carved into his face, his eyes hard a cloudy as he remembered the events of the night before yesterday, when Sam had left him...

Again.

Dean drove with his anger and hurt feelings simmering as memories of what had happened at that damn Asylum once again assaulted his mind.

His brother's hateful words echoing through his mind in conjunction with the fresh spikes of pain radiating across his bruised and rocksalt battered chest.

" Damn you Sammy." Whispered Dean as he felt the backs of his eyeballs beginning to burn with the salt tears.

With a small sniffle and blinking his eyes furiously, Dean increased the pressure on the Impala's accelerator, making the muscle car go just a little bit faster, getting more and more further away from the place where he and his baby brother parted ways.

Further away from Sam who, unbeknownst to him was gonna have more serious injuries than the battered chest and bruised heart Dean was sporting, before the sun would be up tomorrow.

Several hours later, outside a rundown shack...

Sam watched as his breath rose in a fine white mist before disappearing into the night.

Damn, it was freezing cold out here and Sam's jacket didn't do jack in the _keeping it's wearer warm department. _

Tiny shivers wracked through Sam's tall, lanky form as he stealthily made his way over to the broken down house that looked like it was gonna collapse as any second.

As quietly as he could, he slipped through the house's rickety old door, armed only with one of the taser guns in his hand, the other hidden under the waistband of his jean at the small of his back and a flashlight.

Battling back the cold dread that was washing over him in icy waves, Sam held the flashlight and taser gun in a policeman's carry, the gun hand under the flashlight hand as he slowly, carefully made his way down the rotting stairs to the lower level.

It grew darker down here, almost pitch black but, Sam could just make out the door of a wardrobe standing against the wall.

In two long strides he was at the doors of the wardrobe, gripping the knobs with his hands.

With a small breath, he willed his hands to pull, the doors flew away to reveal the two terrified looking children huddled together inside the wardrobe.

They gasped in shock and huddled closer, looking up at this tall and armed stranger looming over them.

" P-please don't hurt us!" Cried the boy as he clung tightly to his sister, the two kids staring up at Sam with impossibly wide and scared eyes.

Sam putting his hand out in a nonthreatening gesture and spoke.

" Hey, I'm not gonna hurt you, I came here to get you outta here and away from that freaky thing that took you."

The two kids stared at Sam, silently debating on weither or not to trust him but, they quickly surmised that he was being truthfull.

The girl reached out and latched only Sam's hand, her little one all but swallowed up by his much larger one as he gripped it firmly but gently.

" Alright, just hold onto each other and do exactly as I tell you." Said Sam as he hurriedly helped the children out of the wardrobe and guided them towards the staircase.

" Go up these stairs and run out the door as fast as you can, wait for me outside and if I don't come out, go and find some help but run if I'm not with you in a few minutes." Ordered Sam sternly as he gave the boy and girl a small shove up the stairs.

" Wait, what's your name?" Asked the boy.

" My name is Sam, now GO!" Yelled Sam urgently.

The two kids obeyed and began running up the stairs.

It was then that the Rawhead made it's pressence known as with a loud growl, it lashed out from under the staircase and made a grab for one of the kids.

It wasn't gonna give up dinner that easily.

" SAAAAAM" Screamed the Boy as his sister's scream in terror echoed through the air as the Rawhead grasped her ankle and was pulled her back down.

" GET YOU UGLY HAND OFF HER YOU SON OF A BITCH." Screamed Sam as he took aim and fired at the grotesque, hairy arm.

The Rawhead let go, causing the Taser Gun's barbed projectiles to miss their intended target by a fraction of a second.

" DAMMITT!" Swore Sam, fully in hunter mode now as his gaze shifted to the kids on the stairs.

" WELL DON'T JUST STAND THERE, GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!" He yelled before he took off after the Rawhead after he watched the kids safely disappear up the steps to the first floor.

Sam tossed the used Taser gun and pulled out it's brother, only to feel a white hot pain explode from the side of his head as he was flung sideways by the Rawhead's blow.

His flight was stopped by a bone jarring collision with the hard concrete wall.

Sam let out a deep scream of pain as he fell to the floor with a loud splash, his left shoulder was now alight with feiry pain and the pain in his head had increased tenfold, and Sam could dimmly feel the steady trickle of blood down the side of his face as he fought to gain his barings.

But thankfully, he'd managed to keep a firm hold on the Taser gunm even with the rough landing.

Unbeknownst to him, Sam's cellphone had fallen out of his pocket and had landed onto the floor by some crates, fatefully far away from the muddy water Sam himself was now laying in.

" YAAAAAAARRRRGH!!!" Roared the Rawhead as it rushed at the crumpled heap of a young man, closing in for the kill.

Now acting on the instinct to survive, Sam pushed himself up and raised the Taser gun with his right hand, his left arm refusing to move, lay limp against him.

" Fry you Fucker." Hissed Sam before he pulled the trigger on the gun, sending the twin barbed hooks flying.

This time, they didn't miss.

The hooks buried themselves deep into the Rawhead's chest.

The Rawhead let out an unearthly howl as one hundred-thousand volts of electricity coursed through it's body.

Sam felt grim triumph at the sight of the dying creature, but the feeling was short lived as he realised that he was soaking wet and the Rawhead was barefoot.

Water was an excellent conductor and Sam had no way of sheilding himself for what happened next.

" GAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!"

Sam screamed as one hundred volts of electricity now began to course through his own body.

The pain from the electricty, his shoulder, and the wound on his temple that was now bleeding profusely proved to be too much for the youngest Winchester.

Just as the Rawhead fell to the filthy floor in a well-cooked heap, Sam's body went utterly limp as by some mercy, the electricty stopped coursing through him.

With consciousness rapidly leaving him as his eyes rolled up into the back of his head, Sam's dimming mind mustered up one final thought before succumbing to his injuries and the all encompassing darkeness.

_" Dean... Help me."_


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Supernatural or whatnot, it is all property of the CW11 network. So don't sue and please don't be offended by the language cause it's gonna be colorful to say the least.

Chapter 3

Outside a rundown looking house in the dead of night, two figures stood huddled together.

The brother and sister Sam had barked a to get the hell out of the house.

" He's not out yet, we should go and get help." Said the girl, Kate Stevens through chattering teeth as she hugged her little brother to him.

" M-Maybe we shoud go back inside and see what happened. Mister Sam should've been out by now." Piped up the Kate's shivering little brother, Morgan.

Kate turned to her brother, her face conveying that she was debating with herself furiously. After a few seconds, she nodded mutely to her brother and held out a hand to him. Returning his sister's nod with his own face taking on a determined expression, Morgan reached out and grasped his sister's hand as tight as he could.

Together, the two children carefully walked back into the rotting old house, the Rawhead's layer. Trying with all their might to be as quiet as possible and also feeling utterly terrified, the Stevens siblings carefully made their way down into the house and down the rotting stairs they'd just run up for their lives a few minutes earlier.

Each step was taken with painstaking caution, each groan of squeal of rotting wood that was made under their feet added another notch to the level of fear that was already coursing through each child's veins.

After what seemed like an agonizingly long eternity, Kate and Morgan finally reached the floor of the dark basement that would've been the last place they'd have drawn breath in life.

All was eerie and quiet... too quiet.

Gathering all the courage they could, Kate and Morgan stepped away from the staircase and made their was around it and into the dark corners nehind it as the searched for the tall stranger who'd come to rescue them.

They saw a few slim beams of light streaming in through the narrow, grimly basement windows. Light from the moon outside.

Slowly, they made their way over to the dimmly illuminated but watery and dank area.

The second they reached the watery area, Morgan and Kate let out twin high pitched, startled screams. They couldn't be blamed though, after all they'd both nearly stepped on the now well done corpse of their former kidnapper, the Rawhead.

The thing was was still smokingfrom the one-hundred thousand volt display a good twenty minutes earlier. The two very frightened kids gawked at the blackened heap of Rawhead meat before they caught sight of the two thin, white, spiraling wires that were sticking out of the grotesque heap.

Young, scared eyes followed these two wire until the fell on the other prone and pasty white figure laying inanimate within a large, murky puddle of muddy water at the far corner of the basement.

" S-Sam?" Called out Kate, her voice small and very very nervous, getting more scared with each passing second that Sam, the young man who'd saved them, remained utterly silent and deathly still.

It was in that moment as he stared at Sam, who was just laying there cold and unresponsive, something seemed to come over Morgan as he let go of his big sister's hand and took off running.

" Morgan wait!" Cried Kate as she dashed after her little brother, small feet splashing through dirty water as they ran towards the limp form of Sam Winchester. Morgan came to kneel before Sam's eagle-spread form, utterly scared out of his mind as his young eyes fell of the still deep crimson blood that was still steadily spilling from the large gash on Sam's head down one side of his face, and to make matters look even worse, Sam was frighteningly cold to the touch and a few thin threads of blood had escaped out of the corner of Sam's mouth and from his nose.

All that bright, lusterous red, against stark, snow white skin.

Trying his best to battle back the fresh wave of fear that was threatening to drown him as he reached out with shaking hands and hesitantly gripped Sam's shoulder and the material of his jacket and began to jostle and shake Sam, trying desperately to wake the youngest Winchester.

" Mister Sam?... Mister Sam!!!" Yelled Morgan as he continued to shake and yank on Sam's jacket.

And, after a few seconds, the little boy had disolved into hysterics.

" P-Please Mister Sam, WAKE UP!!! PLEASE DON'T BE DEAD!!!" Wailed Morgan as he shook Sam harder, continuing to futily try and wake Sam up.

But for all his efforts, Morgan was rewarded only with Sam flopping around bonelessly and moving only because of the now openly weeping little boy's desperate ministrations.

With her own eyes filling with tears, Kate stepped forward.

" Morgan stop it, you might hurt him even more, now get out of the way for a second." Said Kate through a clogged throat as she gently pulled Morgan away from the as of yet not known wether to still be alive Sam Winchester.

With a small, shaky breath, Kate kneeled down before Sam, much like her brother had done before her.

She however, leaned closer, her dirt covered hands softly coming to rest on Sam's chest as she pressed her ear against the slightly damp T-shirt Sam was wearing under his jacket.

Kate held her breath as she waited for a sound to fill her ear.

For the first few terrifying seconds, there was only silence and then...

_Ba... Thump_.

Kate let out the breath she didn't realise she was holding as she literally sagged with relief as the feint but undeniable sound of Sam's heart, though slower than it should be, beating filled her ear.

" He's alive Morgan, he's still alive." Breathed Kate as she listened to that wonderful sound once again.

Morgan too released a deep breath of relief.

But then, it dawned on the two kids.

Sure, Sam was alive, but just barely and all three of them were alone out here.

" How're we gonna get help Katie?" Asked Morgan as tears once again began to fall from his eyes.

Kate was about to reassure Morgan with a bleak and all together empty promise of figuring something out

Then, as though God himself had decided to give the two scared children and answer...

The shrill ring-tone of a cell-phone shot through the air, making Kate and Morgan jump at the unexpected noise.

Without even sparing his sister a glance, Morgan dashed off in the direction the sound had come from, his eyes catching a flicker of light within the darkness that still dwelled within the basement.

When the flicker happened again, Morgan all but dove at it with his hands clawing through the thick darkness before they found the smooth, plastic shape that was Sam's previously lost cell-phone.

Feeling frustrated because he hadn't learned how to use a cell-phone yet, Morgan ran back to where Kate and Sam were, as fast as his legs could carry him.

" Answer it, hurry!" Urged Morgan as he all but shoved the phone into his sister's hands.

With slightly fumbling hands and fear driven frenzy, Kate thankfully managed to hit the right button to answer the incoming call as she quickly brought the phone to her ear.

" Hello?" She asked.

_" Sam?"_ Came a man's confused voice in reply.

" Please mister don't hang up, you have to help us!" Shrieked Kate very quickly in her panit.

" Woah, hey, hey, wait! Who are you and where's Sam?" Came the voice of Dean Winchester from where he sat behind the wheel of the Impala, which was still gliding over the asphault road.

" Please mister, you have to help us. That thing hurt Sam real bad when he was trying to save us, he's got blood coming out of his face and he's so cold and... and he won't wake up, he... He's not dead but he looks like he's gonna be. HE'S... HE'S DYING!!!" Sobbed Kate hysterically with fresh tears coursing down his face with an equally terrified looking Morgan beside her.

Instead of hearing a voice, the sound of tires screeching to a grinding halt and a muffled shout filled the line.

There was heavy breathing before Dean's now urgent and alarmed voice filled the line.

" Alright... Alright just calm down and tell me who you are and what happened."

Kate proceeded to very rapidly give a rapid recount of the entire ordeal.

" M-My name is Kate Stevens, I'm eleven and my brother Morgan, he's six. We were walking home from school when this ugly monster came and grabbed us. He shoved us into a closet in ths really old looking house and we were in it for hours I think, then the doors opened and Sam was there. H-he said he was here to save us from the monster and take us home. He yelled at us to go run up the stairs and wait for him outside while he fought the monster. We waited and waited for him but he never came outside so, me and Morgan came back inside and... and found the monster dead, but them Sam was just laying there in the corner. Morgan tried to wake him up but he won't, he just moved around like jello. I listened to his heart, it's still beating but he won't wake up no matter what we do!"

Kate was completely out of breath by the end of this explanation.

There was stunned silence before Dean Winchester's uncharacteristically shaky voice filled the line as he whirled the Impala around in a jagged U-turn and headed back down the road he'd been travelling, his heart now hammering .

" Okay, okay listen to me. I'm Sam's big brother Dean. I'm really far away right now so I need you to tell me where you guys are, what State and town you live in so I can get there, please tell me where you are." He all but begged the scared child on the other end of the line.

" We... We live in Massachusetts our town's called Dart... Dartmouth." Answered Kate quickly, remembering what her mom said to her when she'd asked where they lived.

" Okay, that's good, that's great now listen to me. I am gonna hang up but before I do, I need you to call 911 for me, do you know how to do that for me Kate?" Asked Dean.

" Of course I know how to do that, I'm not a baby, I'm eleven." Answered Kate, feeling slightly indignant even with how scared she was.

" No,no, you are definetly not a baby, now just do that for me, once I hand up, call 911 and tell the person who answers to get people to come to the old house, tell them they need to hurry and help Sam, do you understand that Sweety?" Asked Dean as he all but pounded on the accelerator and sped off with Massacusetts as his clear destinatin.

" Okay, I will, just hurry please." Begged Kate.

" I'm on my way but right now, just call for help, I'm hanging up now." Said Dean before he killed the line.

Kate felt fear for a split second before she sprung into action and began to punch in the three required numbers and waited anxiously for someone to answer.

While his sister made the call to 911, Morgan crawled over to a still deeply unconscious Sam.

" Please wake up Mister Sam." Whispered Morgan with a small, begging sob as he buried his face into Sam's chest and hugged the unresponsive young man as best he could while he began to cry again.

Meanwhile, from where he sat behind the wheel of a speeding Impala with his heart in his thoat, Dean Winchester had only one thought screaming with the force of a hurricane through his head amidst the roaring echos of an eleven year old girl's terrifying words, telling him his baby brother was hurt really bad... her cries saying that his Sammy was_ dying_.

_" I'm coming Sammy, don't you dare die on me man. DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE DIE ON ME!!!"_


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Supernatural or whatnot, it is all property of the CW11 network. So don't sue and please don't be offended by the language cause it's gonna be colorful to say the least.

Chapter 4

The early morning son shone brightly over the town of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, it's golden rays streamed in through the windows of a hospital room window, painting everything in a soft glow.

Doctor Howard Bolten let out a small, saddened sigh as he gazed down at the young man laying on the hospital bed. He lay utterly still save for the small but steady rise and fall of his chest with each softly rattling breath his congested lungs took.

Though his patient was a twenty-three year old young man, Dr. Bolten couldn't help but think of how painfully young this man, barely past being a boy really, looked where he lay beneath the stark white hospital sheets that seemed to have better color than he did. He was hooked up to several monitoring machines that beeped every few seconds ina steady beat that assured the rest of the world that he was still alive.

As Dr. Bolten stood beside the rail of the bed with a medical chart in his hands, memories of the night before came flooding back, along with the incredible story behind this injured young man's current situation.

The story and memories of how he'd first met this young man, known only as Sam.

The kid had been brought in by one of the two teams of paramedics who'd been ordered to follow after a large police detail that had received a dispatch to the old, rundown Lockland house that stood at the very outskirts of town.

According to the medics, a 911 operator had gotten a terrified phone-call from one of the two Stevens children who been reported missing several hours before. The police and the two ambulances had rushed to the abandoned old house and had surrounded the rotting building before they'd rushed inside.

They'd found the two missing children huddled in the dark corner with their arms locked in death grips around each other and around a half-dead and still senseless Sam Winchester. Two police officers had to literally pry the hysterical children away from the severely injured young man so that the medics could get to him.

To their alarm, Sam had been well past the first stage of hypothermia and was slowly beginning to turn blue. On top of that, the wounds that graced his head were still steadily bleeding and more string of the crimson liquid had seeped out the corner of Sam's mouth.

And in his condition, blood loss was not something he needed.

As the medics had checked him over, several other serious injuries had been discovered.

His left shoulder had been dislocated with the joint jarred free from it's socket. This was coupled by a break in the upper bone of the same arm.

When they'd lifted up his shirt, the medics added three broken ribs on the left side of Sam's ribcage with bruises indicating possible internal bleeding to the growing list of injuries.

Sam's right hand, which had still been gripping the second spent Taser gun, had first and second degree burns marring the skin of his palm and the back of his hand.

Unequeal and nonresponsive pupils indicated the most worrying injury of all, a severe concussion in a dangerous and deadly combination with Sam having lost consciousness.

The medics had quickly and carefully strapped him into a backboard and imobilized his damaged left arm before they'd carried him up the stairs as fast as they could and loaded him into the back of their rig before speeding to this hospital with their sirens blaring at full force.

The Medics had blown through the ER doors with a resounding crash as they'd wheeled Sam in on a gurney.

Everything after that had become a blur of frantic voiced and movements as Docter Bolten and his team had worked desperately through the night, fighting to bring back the young man who'd already been with one foot already across the threshold to the kingdom of Hades.

While the doctor was musing and remembering the very draining night before, outside the quiet, early afternoon air was shattered by the loud, rumbling roar of a high powered car engine as a sleek black 1967 Chevy Impala came tearing down the street towards the white, hospital building.

Dean Winchester gritted his teeth and took a deep, long rattling breath through his nose and held it for a few seconds before letting it go slolwy in an effort to calm his racing heart and frayed nerves. He'd been driving none stop, at illegal speeds for most of the journey in fact, the second he'd called Sam's phone and instead of hearing his baby brother's voice, he'd gotten eleven year old Kate Stevens's frantic voice begging him for help and not hang up on her.

This little girl had unintentionally made Dean Winchester's worst nightmare become reality.

Dean tried with all his will to block out the echos of Kate's voice and the heart-stopping words she'd sobbed into his ear through Sam's cell-phone.

_Please mister, you have to help us_

_Hurt Sam real bad_

_He was trying to save us_

_He's got blood coming out of his face and he's so cold _

_He won't wake up_

_He's not dead but he looks like he's gonna be_

_HE'S... HE'S DYING_

Dean was blinking his eyes and wiping furiously at them by the time he'd pulled into a parking space in the hospital Parking Lot.

He'd managed to asked someone the second he'd entered Dartmouth where the hospital was, thankfully for him, the town only had one central hospital, the rest were clinics.

Dean was 90 percent sure that his Sam was here, now he just had to regain some semblance of control.

_" Pull yourself together Dean, tears aren't gonna get you anywhere."_ Thought Dean as he steadied his nerve and turned off the Impala.

However, the second he'd climbed out of the Impala Dean was all but running towards the hospital doors.

He came tearing through the front doors of the ER and all but barreled into the front desk, startling the four nurses who were working behind it.

" You gotta help me." Said Dean, skipping the formalities and all but making his request seem more like a demand.

" H-How can I help you sir?" Asked one of the nurses once the shock had worn off and she caught the feint traces of desperation within Dean's hazel-green gaze.

" My name is Dean, I'm looking for a young guy who was brought in here. He's twenty three years old, his name is Sam... He's my little brother and all I really know is that he was hurt real bad and that he may have been brought in here along with two missing kids... Is he here?" Asked Dean with a small tremmer in his voice when he'd uttered the last part.

He was met with four stunned gazes before one of the shell-shocked ladies spoke.

" Yes young man, I know who you're talking about. He's the boy who saved the Stevens children Kate and Morgan. They brought all three of them here late last night. Come with me, I'll take you upstairs. Kate kept on saying that Sam's big brother Dean was gonna get here." Said the Nurse, who's name was Lucy according to the small tag pinned on her uniform. She quickly made her way around the desk and made her way over to the elevator with Dean fast behind her heals, his entire body humming with nervous energy and anxiety.

The elevator seemed to take forever to arrive and when it did the Nurse and the very on edge older Winchester brother quickly stepped into it with Lucy pushing the button for the ninth floor.

" Can you tell me what happened last night?" Asked Dean as he turned to Lucy, a desperate spark alight in his eyes as he gazed imploringly at her.

Dean watched as the matronly nurse's eye grew sad and clouded as she shook her head.

" I'm sorry Dean, I don't know the full story about your brother. Last night I was assigned to take care of the two Stevens children but, I was there when the medics had brought him in. I won't lie to you Dean, Sam didn't look good. After that, all I know is that he's up in the I.C.U." Explained Lucy with a sad sigh.

The elevator gave a small bump as it came to a halt before with a small chime, the doors slid open.

" I think Dr. Bolten was the Chief Attending treating your brother, he can give you a better answer." Said Lucy as she looked over her shoulder at Dean.

Dean had his heart lodge firmly in his through as cold fear swirled around in all it's icy glory within his stomach as he followed the nurse into the lobby of the I.C.U.

Lucy led Dean to the waiting area.

" Have a seat, I'm gonna go and find Dr. Bolten and tell him you're here. I'm sure everything will be alright." Assured Lucy before she turned and headed off to go and find said the said doctor.

Dean wished he could believe Lucy's words as he remained standing and began to pace along the waiting room's ugly, tan colored carpet floor.

For Dean Winchester, the next ten minutes were by far the longest he'd ever had to live through in his life so far. They were spent between debating whether or not to call their Dad, trying not to let panic drown him, and thinking only of his baby brother.

Then, Dean stopped mid-step in his pacing when he caught sight of a man, late thirties to early forties, wearing a white lab coat over a pair of green scrubs, walking towards him with an expression of barely hidden grim foreboding on his face.

Dean stepped forward, trying to school his own features as he met the man halfway.

" Are you Doctor Bolten?" Asked Dean, feeling a small flicker of triumph at keeping his voice steady, but it died quickly as the Doctor spoke.

" Yes, I'm Doctor Howard Bolten, I treated your brother Sam down in the ER, I stayed with him after he was brought up here. Come, I'll take you to him." Said the Doctor with practiced softness as he gestured for Dean to follow after him.

With a mute nod, Dean walked side by side with Dr. Bolten as they made their way down a brightly lit hall lined with doors to patient rooms on either side.

Dean wanted to give voice to the millions of questions swirling about in his head but, his mind and his voice seemed to have lost contact with each other, leaving him mute and stoic as he walked in step with the doctor.

They seemed to walk for ages before Dr. Bolten paused beside a doorway at the very end of the hall.

" Go ahead and see him first." Said the Doctor quietly as he gestured at the room.

Dean nodded again and took a deep breath to steady his nerves and he willed his feet to move him over the threshold.

The second he stepped into the room, a small gasp escaped Dean as his very insides froze in unabashed horror at what his eyes beheld before them.

There, laying pale and deathly still on the hospital gurney, was his Sammy.

Without even knowing it, Dean stepped closer until he was standing at the rail of the bed, looming over Sam.

Indeed, Sam in his condition now was stark in contrast to his normal, healthy appearance.

Sam's usually golden, sunkiss skin was pale white with splotches of gray mixed in.

There were dark smudges under his eyes and nearly all the color was gone from his lips, adding to his haggard appearance.

His whole face was slack with unconsciousness and each breath he took made a rattling noise that roared in Dean's ears each time he heared it..

But it was the bandages that caught Dean's shell-shocked appearance.

A thick white band was wrapped tightly around Sam's head, with a small spot of red staining the prestine white at Sam's left temple, along with purplish bruising on the skin under the bandage.

Sam's entire left arm was encased in a large white cast with what appeared to be an immobilizing brace on his shoulder that in combination left the entire arm bend into the shape of an **L**.

His right hand was also thickly wrapped in gauze with his thumb and pointer finger individually wrapped, leaving only three pale fingers visible.

There was an IV needle on the inside of the same arm, introvenously sending medicine into his bloodstream.

" Oh my God." Whispered Dean with his eyes glistening as he turned to see Dr. Bolten standing in the doorway.

" What the hell happened to my brother?" Asked Dean through a strained voice as he gazed at th doctor with stricken eyes.

Bolten heaved a heavy sigh before he stepped further into the room.

" Dean, why don't we have a seat while I explain your brother's condition." Offered the Doctor as he indicated the chairs beside Sam's bed.

The two men sank into the chairs and after a pause, Dr, Bolten began to speak with Dean hanging on to every word.

" Last night, Sam was brought in here with multiple serious injuries and hypothermia setting in. According to the Medics, he'd been thrown against a concrete wall that left him with two blunt force trauma wounds to the head, a dislocated left shoulder with a subsequent break of Humerus bone in the upper part of the same arm, three broken ribs on the left side of his ribcage which caused moderate internal bleeding, and first to second degree burnes to his right hand."

At this point Bolten paused at the look of abject horror and disbelief written across Dean's face. He gave the young man a moment to regain his composure before continuing.

" We managed to immobilize the damaged arm, suture the head wounds, wrap the burned hand, and get warm fluids into him to combat the hypothermia but, because of the internal bleeding caused by the trauma to his ribs, he had to have emergency surgery-"

Bolten was cut off when a sharp gasp escaped Dean, if it were possible, the horror etched on his face had grown.

Clearing his throat lightly, Bolten continued.

" During the surgery, some one received information from the police that Sam had been found with two used Taser guns at the old Lockland house's basement, one of which he'd used to kill the man that had kidnapped the Stevens children. The police said that there had been large amounts of water in the basement where this altercation took place. Sam was thrown against the wall and had landed in the water when he'd fired the Taser gun at the kidnapper. As you know, water is conductive, along with electrocuting the other man, Sam was electrocuted... With one hundred thousand volts of electricity." Said Bolten.

Dean heart had slammed to a complete halt as these terrible words registered in his mind.

Sammy.

Electrocuted.

One hundred- thousand volts of electricity.

" Oh dear God no." Whispered Dean as he screwed his eyes shut against the tears.

Bolten felt his heart crumble a little as he gazed upon the young man before him, what made him feel all the more worse was that he wasn't finished quiet with explaining the younger brother's condition.

" Dean... umm... There's more... Thankfully, Sam's heart wasn't damaged by the electrocution but, during the surgery there were complications, the Surgery team managed to stop the bleeding and repair any other damages but..." At this point, Bolten trailed off, finding it difficult beyond imagination to say what was on his mind.

" But what? What is it, what complications are you taking about?" Choked out Dean.

He watched as Bolten sigh and looked to the floor for what seemed an eternity before he brought his gaze back up to meet Dean's desperate and fear filled eyes.

" Dean, there's no easy way to say this but the complications from the surgery coupled with the electrocution put tremendous strain on Sam's nervouse system, basically causing a short circuit for lack of a better description." Said Bolten grimly.

" What does that mean?" Asked Dean softly.

Bolten took a deep breath to steady his own composure before he answered the softly spoken question.

" Dean... your brother is in a coma and there is a possiblity that he might not come out of it."


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Supernatural or whatnot, it is all property of the CW11 network. So don't sue and please don't be offended by the language cause it's gonna be colorful to say the least.

Chapter 5

_Beep...Beep...Beep...Beep...Beep..._

The constant beeping noise was amplified by the utter silence of the hospital room. The noise echoed and droned through Dean Winchester's ears.

He had come to hate this sound in the mere hours he'd been subjected to it, but in a twist of irony he prayed with every fiber of his being that the many beeps remained as such, individual sounds. He prayed that they would never combine into one hollow, monotonous sound.

Dean let out a small sigh as he sat in the very uncomfortable hospital chair. He scrubbed wearily at his stubble covered face, his tired eyes never leaving the pale figure laying unnaturally still save for the minuscule rise and fall of his bandaged chest.

Dean could live with the ever constant beeping.

After all, it was one of the scarce indicators that gave testimate that his Sammy was still alive, that his baby brother's heart was still beating.

Dean could live with the ever constant beeping.

It'd only been a day since Dean had found his baby brother in this dire state. A day since Dr. Bolten had told him of Sam's many grievous injuries and comatose condition. Only a day since Dean had been told the terrifying possibility that Sam might never wake up again, that there was a possibility that those deep green eyes that had pinned him many times with their famous puppy-dog stare, may never open to do so... Ever again.

" C'mon Sasquatch, open them big eyes... I'm getting really bored and stiff here Sammy." Said Dean softly, his voice scratchy and rough from hours of disuse, trying to be light and snarky in that way of his, like everything was normal, it was all just to hide the chaos that was raging within him.

But, the moss green eyes remained shut. Sam remained unnaturally still save for the steady rise and fall of his chest.

Dean hung his head in defeat before with another heavy sigh, he git up stiffly from his chair. He leaned over the rail of the hospital bed until his face was mere inches from his baby brother's stark visage.

So stark that even the nasal canola that rested against Sam's upper lips had more color than he did.

" Sammy, if you can hear me in there, I need you to wake up soon. Yeah, I know you're really banged up but, you've gotta wake up. You're, ah... You're starting to freak me out just a little here man, I mean Sammy, you're matchin the sheets here and I'll tell ya' right now, is ain't a good look on you." Much to Dean's chagrin, his voice began to waver at this last part, it took him a moment to allow his throat to loosen up before he spoke again.

" Listen, I gotta go make a call. You just... You hang in there for me alright Sammy?" He asked, hoping futilely for an answer and knowing deep down that he wouldn't get one.

Dean slowly, hesitantly reached out and gently cupped one of Sam's pale cheeks, tenderly running the pad of his thumb over the arc of Sam's cheek bone. Unfortunately, the rare gesture of affection from his usually anti-Chick-flick older sibling did nothing to bring the youngest Winchester out of the deep unconsciousness that was still wrapped around him like a straight-jacket that just could not be pried off.

Quickly dashing a hand across his burning eyes, Dean forced himself away from Sam's side and strode out of the bleak hospital room. He wove his way through the hall, searching for a place of privacy to make his intended phone call without getting into trouble with the hospital staff.

At last, Dean found a small terrace with ugly yellow deck furniture.

The cold air nipped at Dean's skin like a thousand needles but, he paid them no heed as he slowly walked over to the railing, he turned around and all but collapsed back wards against it as he fished out his cell-phone from his pocket. He flipped it open and pressed the number for the very elusive John Winchester.

As he'd been expecting and hoping against, no one picked up and instead, all Dean received was his father's recorded voice.

Once the beep sounded, Dean used all the will he could muster to keep himself from loosing all semblance sanity and self control and start screaming at the top of his lungs into the phone, to all out beg his father to answer his Goddamn phone for once.

Instead, Dean spoke with a voice that did a decent job of masking the absolute terror that was swirling around inside him.

" Hey Dad, it's me Dean. I know you probably won't call me back but I guess I'd call anyway. Uhh... There's no easy way to say this... Dad, Sammy's been hurt really bad, like h-hospital bad. I don't know what the hell happened, just that he got real banged up the day before yesterday, broke a bunch of bones and got a nasty knock to his head. But don't worry, I'm here, I'll... I'll take care of him. Dad just... If you get this, please call me and if you could y'know, possibly come, we're in Dartmouth, Massachusetts."

At this point, Dean felt his resolve crumbling and paused to try and stop his voice from wavering before he forced himself to speak seeing as to how the time allotted for the voice mail was fast being depleted.

" Alright, bye Dad." Was all he could manage to say, his voice cracking on the last word before he quickly shut his phone off and disconnected the call.

Dean let out a shaky breath that ended in a small sob.

His chest was on fire, not only from the beating it's taken from a shotgun round of rock-salt, but from the feelings of absolute helplessness and failure at having not been there to protect Sam, at having to now see his brother in such a dire state, all of which was swirling around inside him.

" What am I supposed to do?" Whispered Dean, once again receiving no answer.

Dean stayed outside for a good twenty minutes to compose himself before he headed back to Sam's room.

The older Winchester was halfway back to Sam's room when a hospital alarm rang out loud and all consuming.

_" Code Blue... Code Blue... Code Blue..." _

Instantly at full alert, Dean ran the rest of the way back to Sam's room.

He felt his heart freeze as Doctors and nurses ran past him, to where he assumed was Sam's room.

But, he felt a jolt go through him as he watched all the medical personnel run past his brothers room and into the room after it.

Dean stumbled for a second as he felt his knees grow weak, but he kept going until he all but fell through the threshold of Sam's room.

" Oh thank God." He moaned as he caught sight of his brother, still comatose but otherwise alright, still breathing evenly as though he were asleep... Not dying like the patient in the room where the code had been called probably was at the moment.

Dean exhaled a breath that rattled it's way out of his throat and through his colorless lips.

If a doctor were to happen by, they'd have called for another team, this time to help Dean because he looked for all intent and purposes like he was about to collapse himself.

With a thick swallow and blinking his eyes very rapidly against the stinging, prickling sensation that had settled over them.

With his shaky legs, Dean all but stumbled over to the hospital bed and collapse back into the chair he'd been occupying for a whole day.

He promptly buried his face into his hand and took a deep breath to calm his still racing heart.

After a few minutes, Dean looked up again, his burning eyes falling on his comatose baby brother.

To his chagrin, Dean felt something warm and wet carving a trail down his stubble covered cheek.

He wiped the warm saline away with his hand, his tearful eyes never leaving his brother's pale profile.

With a small sniffle, Dean pulled his chair closer to the head of the bed and leaned in. Carefully, Dean reached out with a lightly trembling hand till he was once again gently cupping Sam's cheek.

In silence, Dean gently, as though he were handling the most fragile being on the planet, turned his brother's head towards him so that there were face to face.

But, they weren't seeing eye to eye, Sam's eyes remained shut, his face was still pale and lax, his only true and unmanipulated movement, was his own breathing.

Dean felt a twinge in his heart at seeing and feeling his brother so pliant, so unresisting.

Though it was a small comfort that Sam was warm, alive to the touch.

Feeling a few more tears escape him and not even bothering to wipe them away this time as he slumped forward till his forehead was pressed firmly against his brothers.

Dean's eyes may have fluttered shut, but that did little to stop the torrents of salt that were now seeping past the flimsy barrier his eye lids created.

With his other hand, Dean carefully snuck his arm under Sam's neck so that he could carefully pull his baby brother as close as he could.

With another shaky sigh, Dean spoke, a whisper was all that he could manage.

_" Please Sammy... Please, please, please wake up baby brother, I'm begging you."_ He rasped as he moved his head further in, till his cheek was pressed against Sam's neck.

With another sigh, Dean felt some of the terror locked around his soul ebb away with the feeling of Sam's pulse against his skin.

Unfortunately, throughout this entire, once unheard of nuzzling by Dean just oozing with chick-flick...

Sam remained senseless, Sam remained locked in the darkness of his coma.

And it was uncertain whether or not he'd heard his older sibling's desperate plea.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Supernatural or whatnot, it is all property of the CW11 network. So don't sue and please don't be offended by the language cause it's gonna be colorful to say the least.

Chapter 6

He was loosing his mind.

That would be the words Dean Winchester would use to describe the way he was feeling right now as he sat beside a still comatose Sam. It'd been two and a half full, agonizing weeks since Dean had come barreling into Dartmouth and found his baby brother in this dire state. Sam lay pale and motionless save for the steady rise and fall of his chest as he breath evenly and on his own. At least the congestion from the hypothermia had cleared up in it's entirety. But, that was about the only improvement to Sam's condition.

As expected, Dean hadn't received a return call from the wayward John Winchester in regards to the message his oldest son had left on his father's voicemail. Dean understandably felt pissed at his dad but also, he was mad as Hell at Sam for taking on what he know knew to be a Rawhead all by himself. But, Dean could do no more than sit there dutifully and wait for his baby brother's damaged body to slowly heal itself.

Dean was going insane with all the endless sitting and staring and quietly willing his baby brother to wake up from this coma.

It was afternoon now and at that exact moment, Dean's stomach made it's need for sustenance known. At first, Dean ignored the groans and grumbles but soon enough, the gnawing hunger pangs cut through his stubborn resolve.

Reluctantly, Dean got up from his seat and reached out to gently run the backs of his fingers over the arc of his baby brother's cheek before he walked out of the room, his eyes never once straying from the figure on the bed until he'd stepped over the threshold an into the hallway of the hospital.

With a final, lingering look at his baby sibling where he still lay deeply unconscious, Dean walked off down the hallway with a plan on getting some lunch at the diner across the street from the hospital.

Dean was so lost in his melancholy, he didn't notice the shaggy dark haired man wearing green hospital scrubs watching him as he went by.

This as of yet unknown man watched Dean until the oldest Winchester boy disappeared into one of the elevators.

_" You look like crap Kiddo."_ Thought John Winchester guiltily as he watched the elevator doors slide shut, effectively stealing his oblivious oldest son away from him. With a tiny sigh, the oldest Winchester quietly and carefully walked up the same hall Dean had just exited, being careful not to alert the nurses and doctors because he was intruding and unlawfully impersonating hospital staff after all.

With his hunter's stealthiness, John Winchester quietly ducked into the room he'd seen Dean emerge from just a few minutes earlier.

The second he walked into the room and his eyes fell on it's single occupant, John Winchester stopped dead in his tracks and openly gawked at what he beheld before him.

" Sammy." Whispered John, the sound strained because of his constricting vocal cords.

It had been four whole years since he'd been this close to his youngest son, since that night when they'd had their big blow out to end all blow outs and Sam had stormed out the door and headed off to Stanford

As though on autopilot, John Winchester walked over to his comatose youngest child's bedside.

Though he'd healed a great deal since being put in this coma two whole weeks ago, Sam still looked like death warmed over, pale and way too still.

John came to stand at the side of Sam's bed and stared horrified at his youngest child, taking in the thick white bandage wrapped around his head, the brace and thick white cast around his left arm, the thick hospital gauze that was wrapped around his right hand and the thumb and index finger of the same hand. There was also a small bandage on the inside of Sam's left elbow where the IV needle had been taken out.

" Oh my God Sammy." Whispered John as the famously stoic oldest Winchester's eyes filled with hot, bitter tears as he stared down at his youngest son.

With a thick swallow, John bent down and slowly reached out to wards his injured boy with a very hesitant hand.

John's hand came to lightly rest over the center of Sam's steadily rising and falling chest, feeling some of his horror dissipate as he felt the feint sounds of his son's heart beating beneath his palm through the thin material of the hospital gown Sam was donning.

Biting his bottom lip hard and breathing deep through his nostrils, John regained a semblance of control over the raging emotions within him before he softly cleared his throat and forced himself to speak.

" Jesus boy, you're a complete mess, what the hell happened to you?" Whispered John as his mind was assaulted by memories of his Sam at various stages of his life.

Tiny little newborn.

Motherless and always crying six month old.

Toddler on wobbling legs as he took his first steps.

Bouncy five year old with oceans of curiosity.

Awkward and gangley thirteen year old with the beginnings of defiance in his eyes.

Angry and hurt eighteen year old as stubborn as his old man and with his mind fixed on college.

Of course, he didn't receive any answer to the question he whispered.

Knowing that he couldn't stay for very much longer and risk being found out for impersonating a hospital staff member, John battled back the urge to pulled his youngest up and try to shake him back into the conscious world.

Instead, John reached out with his other hand and gently tangled his fingers into Sam;s limp locks of shaggy chocolate brown hair and leaned his face in close as he spoke again.

" Sammy? If you can hear me, you have to wake up, you have to be alright. I wish I could stay with you and Dean but I can't. Wake up soon cause you're scarin' Dean... and your old man too. Wake up as fast as you can, come back to us. And don't worry cause Dean's gonna be here to take care of you like he's always been. " Whispered John before he pressed his stubble covered cheek to his grievously injured youngest child's pale forehead.

John savored the rare affectionate moment between him and the son he most often butted heads with and felt a small pain within his chest because Sam wasn't awake to share it with his father.

Then, John called upon every ounce of his will to tear himself away from his son's bedside and forced himself towards the door.

When he came to the threshold, he stopped to gaze upon his son's comatose form one final time and let a final whisper leave his lips.

_" Don't take too long waking up Baby Boy."_

Then John Winchester was gone like a wisp of smoke with no one being the wiser that he was ever there. He slipped past the legitimate hospital staff and out of the hospital.

But as it so often likes to be, life brims with instances of irony.

Had the oldest Winchester chosen to stay by his youngest son's side for just a few minutes longer, John might have been able to catch the way Sam's heavily bandaged hand twitched for a second before going still.

Five minutes later, the hand twitched again and the three pale fingers not burned and wrapped in gauze began to squirm and jerk as the nerve endings and touch receptors felt the smooth surface of the hospital sheet beneath them.

As the fingers moved, the rise and fall of Sam's chest began to quicken in it's tempo as his eyebrows knitted together in a small frown.

Sam's body continued in these random movements, the uninjured fingers of his right hand clenching around the hospital sheet.

" M...Mmmm..." A soft, slightly muffled moan vibrated through vocal cords not used for weeks but remaining blocked from getting louder by closed lips.

Then eyes began to move rapidly beneath the still closed eyelids as Sam's frown deepened.

These many movements carried on for minutes that seemed like eternities upon eternities, getting faster and faster until they reached a crescendo and then...

Deep, moss green eyes burst open for the first time in weeks with a small gasp.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Supernatural or whatnot, it is all property of the CW11 network. So don't sue and please don't be offended by the language cause it's gonna be colorful to say the least.

Chapter 7

Confusion and dull, throbbing pain were the first things that registered in Sam Winchester's muddled, freshly free of a coma mind.

" Mmmm..."

Another soft moan escaped Sam as he abruptly squinted the eyes he'd just opened moments ago, shut. The light and the white walls were overwhelmingly too bright for eyes that had not seen anything in weeks.

_" Oh God, where am I?"_ Thought Sam as he waited for the twinging sensation in the backs of his eyeballs to cease.

Breathing deep though his nostrils. Sam slowly reopened his eyes, giving them time to adjust. When it was no longer painful, Sam's eyes and other senses began to take in his surrounds.

Whites walls, sterile smell, scratchy sheets and comforter covering him.

_" I'm in a hospital."_ Realized Sam as he continued to look around, memories of recently passed events dimly flashing through his slightly atrophied mind.

Even after all the trauma to his head, Sam could remember the key details.

The nightmare that had been a vision of Dean's death by electrocution in a dingy basement.

Roosevelt Asylum and the disaster that had unfolded between him and Dean that happened a few days after the dream.

Dean's eyes filled with hurt and anger as he climbed into the Impala and drove away into the night.

A very ugly and hungry Rawhead and the faces of two terrified children.

A burning hot feeling of blinding agony throughout his whole body and then sinking into a murky darkness.

And waking up now.

_" I'm not Dead."_ Thought Sam before he tried to move.

He instantly regretted the action as his entire left side from the waist up came alive with a twinging pain.

With a small gasp, Sam lay still and breathed deep as he rode out the waves of pain crashing over him without mercy.

When the pain finally dissipated to a dull throb, exhaustion began to creep into the weakened young man.

Sam's eyes began to feel heavier and heavier as sleep tugged at them.

With a soft sigh, Sam let his eyes slowly fall shut and gave in to his body's desires for rest.

A final thought passed through Sam's sleepy mind before consciousness peacefully slipped away, though it didn't go so far as it had gone when he was in a could easily return to Sam with no problem this time.

_" I wish Dean was here." _

But in Sam's mind, Dean was probably off on the hunt their father had sent them on via cellphone, totally oblivious to everything that had transpired with the Rawhead and was probably still angry at him for what happened at Roosevelt Asylum and then that night on the deserted road where they'd argued and he'd hurt Dean again by leaving him.

Even if it was all a trick to save his big brother's life.

The last image that passed through Sam's coherent mind was of the way Dean's face had been filled with a mixture of fury and dull hurt before he'd climbed into the Impala and driven away into the night.

Meanwhile, at the diner across the street from the hospital..

An oblivious Dean Winchester sat at the counter, waiting for the meal he'd ordered with melancholy written into every line of his being.

A sigh escaped him.

God things were so messed up.

His baby brother was hurt so bad, he was in a coma that had lasted for weeks now.

_Weeks._

And Dean had a sinking feeling that when he returned to the hospital, Sam would still be laying there on the bed in the same position his big brother had left him.

What made it even worse was that there was nothing Dean could do, no magical way to bring his brother back from the darkness that gripped him.

Only waiting and hoping, while using every ounce of will not to breakdown and give in to despair and tears.

Suddenly, Dean felt his throat tighten up to the point where in hurt to breathe, he felt anger and fear mingling with the despair already consuming him. He barely noticed that his meal had arrived, his appetite thoroughly trounced by the other feelings clashing inside him.

He wanted to run out of the diner and start screaming out his anguish at the top of his lungs loud enough for everyone including God himself to hear.

But in true Dean Winchester fashion, he stomped down the urge and instead focused his attention on the much needed meal set before him.

He could barely remember the last time he'd actually eaten anything solid in the passed two days, if he kept this up he would find himself in a hospital bed beside his brother and then what good would he be to Sammy?

With a deep breath, Dean pushed back all of the raging emotions and focused on eating his cheeseburger and fries.

The first bite of burger was like sawdust sandwiched between two slices of sandpaper inside his mouth.

Resisting the urge to gag and spit out the stuff, Dean mechanically forced his jaws to chew and then swallowed. He took of sip from the glass of cold soda that came with the meal before he began to repeat the process of biting, chewing, and then swallowing.

After a few repeats of this cycle, Dean picked up the pace and began rapidly devouring his meal but still not really tasting anything.

When he'd popped the final morsel of french fry into his mouth and finished his glass of soda, Dean felt his stomach's need for sustenance sated but still felt whole empty inside.

The older Winchester brother dug out his wallet and fished out the necessary bills to pay for his meal and tip the waitress before without a further glance, he flew out of the diner, very eager to get back to the person who was paramount in his mind.

At this point, Dean didn't care if Sam was still in the same state as he'd left him in, Dean just wanted to be with his baby brother and wait.

He'd wait for the rest of his life for Sam to wake up if he had to.

Dean quickly crossed the necessary streets and quietly ducked through the automatic sliding doors and headed for the elevators. After a short waits there was a small ding that signalled an elevator's arrival.

Dean waited for the elevator to empty before stepping in. He found himself to the lone passenger, which suited Dean just fine because he really didn't want some nurse of Doctor to eye him with silent pity on the way up to the ninth floor.

The ride seemed to go on forever and ever until the elevator eased to a full stop and the doors slid open with a small chime.

Dean eagerly exited the elevator and gave a quick nod to the nurse who was sitting behind the large desk in the very center of the floor before he walked down the long hallway to his brother's hospital room.

When Dean stepped over the threshold, he felt a wave of numbness and disappointment wash over him as he eyed his baby brother, still laying there pale as a sheet and with his eyes closed.

_Still locked in a coma_ in Dean's mind.

Clenching his jaw hard enough to the point of pain, Dean quietly walked across the room to Sam's bedside and retook the seat in the uncomfortable chair next to the head of the hospital bed.

Dean sat there in the chair with only the faint sounds of Sam's breathing mingling with his own and just stared at his brother's lax and pale features.

As he sat there, Dean felt his threadbare heart begin to rend itself in two.

Sure, in the weeks since he'd found his younger sibling laying here senseless in a hospital bed Dean had had moments of despair. But now, in this moment Dean was finally beginning to loose the one thing that had kept him going for so long.

He was beginning to loose his hope.

He was beginning to loose hope that Sammy would find a way through the darkness that encompassed him and wake up.

Releasing a shaky breath and using all his will not to dissolved into full, body shaking sobs, Dean slumped forwards so low and buried his face into his hands.

He inhaled a deep, rattling breath and found himself loosing the battle to to keep his despair away.

But Dean being Dean, he managed to stifle the sound of his sobs from becoming full wails of misery. He carried on crying into his hands for a full long minutes before he let his hands flop bonelessly away from his face.

Dean stared at his baby brother through weeping eyes and felt himself crumble even further.

With a sob wrenching out of him and shaking his entire being, Dean clumsily pulled the chair he was sitting in as close as he could to Sam's hospital bedside.

Dean continued to stare at his baby brother pale and lax features, all the while blinking through tears of bitter salt that ran down his haggard cheeks in torrents.

The older Winchester brother leaned in so that his face was mere inches from that of his " comatose " younger brother.

" Sammy... Oh God... Please." Whispered Dean through painfully constricted vocal cords, desperation radiating off of him.

The with a soft yet still wrenching sob, Dean let his tear-filled eyes fall shut and the tight coils of tension evaporated from him.

The older brother lightly collapsed onto the edge of the hospital bed, with his head coming to rest over Sam's upper chest.

Dean's whole body was wracked with tremors as he buried his face into the spot over Sam's heart while his right hand shakily sought out the pale fingers that poked out of the plaster cast that encased the majority of Sam's left arm.

The soft thumping of his brother's heart against his cheek was little comfort to Dean, terror seeped into his already crumbling heart at the thought that if his baby brother didn't wake up soon, the thumping would stop... forever.

And forever was not something Dean Winchester could bare to happen to Sam.

And so, Dean lay all but collapsed over his grievously injured baby brother, in the full throws of despair and terror.

So caught up, he didn't notice a pair of moss green eyes flutter open for the second time this day, once again filled with the confusion of not being fully aware of his surroundings and situation.

Sam blinked his eyes a few times to once again readjust them to the light, a small frown creasing his brow as he felt a light weight over his chest.

And judging by the way this weight was minutely shaking, in was no inanimate object.

Then the warmth of fingers, callous roughened yet gently entwined with his own on his left hand registered.

With his heart beginning to pound and anxiety coursing through him, Sam moved his head downward and slowly as he could as not to give away the fact that he was awake.

The second his eyes fell downwards to his chest, Sam's heart froze to a dead stop, his lungs momentarily forgot how to work, while his eyes grew wide with shock and recognition.

Short and spiky dirty blond hair.

Worn and aged brown leather jacket.

What looked like a black cord resting against the back of a pale neck.

And dopey looking ears.

Only one individual fit this description.

Dean.

His big brother Dean.

Sam was about to call out his brother's name, joy filling him that Dean was here, with him, that somehow he came back for him but found that his unused and totally parched vocal cords just would not obey his will.

And then, Sam heard a noise that made the joy evaporate and had him feeling more afraid then he ever had been in his life.

A small, plaintiff sob that shook through Dean. And there was a tell-tale wetness seeping through his hospital gown and onto the skin over his heart.

Dean, his anti-chick-flick moment, tough as nails big brother... was crying, hard and without shame.

_Dean_ was _weeping_.

And that made Sam's heart clench painfully within his chest.

With his voice more or less useless, Sam's still somewhat fuzzy mind came up with a different course of action, simple and to the point.

Now he just had to get his right arm to move.

At first, his thickly bandaged right hand didn't so much as twitch, but Sam Winchester was known for being a stubborn SOB after all.

Soon, his hand was twitching and at a snails pace it was finally sliding up towards his very upset older brother's face.

Dean clutched at Sam's pale fingers and simply lay there with his head pillowed against Sam's chest, biting back more sobs that silently shook his body and then he felt something touch his tear stained cheek.

The older Winchester brother's eyes instantly shot open, and then he was bolting upright in his seat completely startled.

Then, the breath left his lungs when he found a pair of familiar, moss green eyes staring back at him.

Dean gawked at Sam with his jaw slack and hanging slightly open.

Sam stared back with his own beginning to burn.

After what seemed like hours when in actuality they were mere seconds, Dean voice returned to him, though all he could manage was one scared but hesitantly hopeful word.

One name.

" S-Sammy?"

Sam slowly licked at his dry lips before he parted them and tried to answer his brother's single word quiery.

The best he could muster was a dry croak.

" H-Hey... D... De'n."


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Supernatural and I am not making any profits off of this story. It all belongs to the CW and Eric Kripke so, please don't sue and please don't be offended by the language or situations the characters find themselves in.

.

Chapter 8

Dean Winchester was practically vibrating with nervous energy as he stood by the hospital bed and watched as the doctor checked Sam over. Now Dean had seen the doctor check his brother over many times during the last couple of weeks.

The reason that made this check over so monumental was that this time Sam Winchester was awake and coherent.

No longer locked in a coma

His eyes were open and he was softly whispering his answers to whatever inquiries the doctor was making of him.

" Sam can you tell me when exactly you woke up, was it after your brother came back?" Asked the Doctor as he carefully shined a pen-light into Sam's hazel-green eyes to check their responsiveness.

" N-No, I woke up earlier. I was alone. I just looked around and realized I wasn't dead, I was in a hospital. After that I just got drowsy and went back to sleep." Said Sam before Dean cut him odd.

" You woke up from a two week coma and then you went back to sleep?" He asked, completely taken aback as he gawked at his little brother.

Sam just gave him a sheepish and apologetic look as the doctor spoke.

" And then after that you woke up again when Dean came back in here?" He asked.

" Yeah." Whispered Sam with a small nod of his head.

The doctor stood there and digested this information for a moment before he spoke.

" Alright, I don't know why no one was alerted immediately after you woke up the first time but the fact that you woke up and we're having this conversation at all is a miracle in itself. For know I want you to rest cause no one here wants to see you relapse." Said the doctor before with a small smile he left the Winchester brothers to each other in the hospital room.

Dean wordlessly made his way over to the chair besides Sam's hospital bed and wearily sand down into it.

" You alright Dean?" Asked Sam softly as he eyed his big brother.

Dean jerked his head up and stared sharply at Sam as he spoke.

" You're the one in the hospital bed and you're asking me if _I'm_ alright?" Countered Dean.

" Yes." Answered Sam with a small smile.

Despite himself, Dean felt himself returning the smile and feeling warmed by his baby brother's concern.

" I'm just peachy Sam. I'm okay." Said Dean.

Much to the older Winchester brother's chagrin, Dean felt the emotions he'd been pushing down as far as he could start to bubble back upwards inside of him.

Clearing his throat lightly Dean spoke.

" Okay enough, you heard what the Doc said Sammy, you gotta take it easy and not end up relapsing back into a coma. So you are gonna stop worrying about this and rest." He said sternly.

Sam nodded silently, his eye-lids already starting to to droop with the coming sleep.

Before he succumbed fully to the pull of sleep's hold, Sam eyed his brother and spoke.

" You gonna be hear when I wake up again?" He asked with a small quirk of his lips. He really wanted Dean to be there when he woke up from here on out.

" Sammy, your brain cells must still be pretty screwed up from the hit and the coma is you think you need to ask me that man. Of course I'm gonna be here when you open your eyes again. Now got to sleep little brother and stop worrying, everything is alright now. I'll be here." Said Dean softly, the last part a promise to never leave.

As he watched Sam's eyes start to slowly fall shut, Dean reached out his hand without thinking.

Sam's eyes opened back up a little and stared at hos big brother in slight surprise as he felt Dean's fingers gently card through his hair, being mindful of the bandage wrapped around his head that covered the still healing wounds he'd suffered in his fight with the Rawhead.

With a deep sigh and a feeling of being completely safe, Sam's eyes fluttered shut and sleep took full hold of the youngest Winchester's still healing body.

Dean smiled softly as he watched Sam's features relax and his breathing even out.

When he was sure that Sam was completely out, Dean reluctantly drew his hand away from Sam's hair. Dean simply sat there staring at Sam's sleeping form after that.

After a few minutes that seemed more like hours Dean slowly rose from the chair and stood.

With a lingering stare at Sam, Dean silently forced himself to walk away from the hospital bed.

He went across the hospital room to where the door to the bathroom stood. Dean opened the door as carefully as he could to insure as little noise as possible and slipped inside.

The door closed shut behind Dean with a soft click and he got a few steps away from it further into the cent of the bathroom.

It was then that Dean's knees gave out on him.

The young man buckled like a felled tree and collapsed onto the white tiled floor with a light thud.

He'd come to rest on his side and thus curled up into an impossibly small human ball as harsh sobs started wracking through his entire body

Even as he broke down completely Dean made a little noise as he could manage, for the simple reason of not waking Sam up and probably scaring said kid brother to death.

As he alternated between sobbing and gasping, Dean slowly uncurled himself and rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling through tear blurred eyes.

With a final sob, Dean calmed down somewhat and grew more quiet though, the air still hitched inside his chest as he breathed.

Dean reached up and wiped wearily at his tear-stained face.

Then he pressed the backs of his hands over his eyes and whispered two simple words to the silence.

" Thank You."


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Supernatural and I am not making any profits off of this story. It all belongs to the CW and Eric Kripke so, please don't sue and please don't be offended by the language or situations the characters find themselves in.

.

Chapter 9

A deep low rumble filled the crisp winter air as a sleek black 1967 Chevy Impala glided down the long stretch of nearly empty highway. From where he sat behind the wheel Dean Winchester turned his gaze away from the road and looked to his right. There riding shotgun beside him was all six foot four inches of still very injured and hurting little brother. Sam was all but crammed into the car seat. He had twisted himself about even with how much pain his still sort of fresh injuries were most definitely causing him. Dean did not have to look hard to see that his brother was in muted agony. Feeling a small pang of guilt shoot through him for sneaking Sam out of the hospital just that very morning back in Dartmouth, Dean spoke.

" How ya doin' there Sammy?" He asked and he glanced back and forth between his brother and the road.

Sam peeled one of his closed eyes open and gazed at Dean blankly as he spoke.

" I'm as fine as can be expected Dean." He said softly, with a hint of flatness in his tone.

Dean turned his head and pinned Sam with a look that nearly screamed how little he actually believed his brother's words of assurance. Shaking his head slightly Dean spoke.

" Well, you just take it easy. We'll be at the next town before you know it."

Sam gave a small nod before he began to carefully shift about in his seat in a vain attempt to get more comfortable before settling down. His ribs were bothering him still, the cast that seemed to encase his whole left arm was itching like crazy, and the brace around his shoulder felt more like a vice. All around, Sam Winchester felt like crap.

Slowly but surely the minutes passed by and after an hour and a half of driving the Winchester brothers were pulling into a quiet looking town. Feeling himself for the first time since getting out of Dartmouth, Dean made quick work of finding the nearest motel. Twenty minutes later found the Impala gracefully cruising into a nearly empty motel parking lot. The sleek black car eased to a stop in front of the main check-in office.

" You sit tight while I get us a room." Said Dean before he hastily climbed out of the car. Dean rushed through the office door and headed straight for the front desk where he was greeted by a lanky looking blond teenage guy with a moderate acne problem.

" Hey, I'd like a ground floor room, two queens please." Said Dean.

" Sure, no problem. Will that be cash or credit?" Asked the Kid.

" Cash." Said Dean simply as he pulled out his wallet and dug out the proper bills of payment. The older Winchester brother was very glad that his wallet had been filled from some good hustling a few nights before.

The kid told Dean the amount and in turn, Dean forked over the money. With payment no longer an issue the Kid handed over a room key. Dean all but grabbed it up and made his exit with a hurried 'thanks' said over his shoulder. Once outside Dean immediately made his way back to the Impala and climbed back inside. Sam for his part had not moved an inch in all the time Dean had been gone. Sam gave his brother the barest not in acknowledgment and reassurance that he was still conscious. Much to Dean's dismay, Sam had grown several shades paler and looked to be in even worse pain that before. Dean felt another hot spike of guilt skewer his heart as he restarted the car and drove off slowly towards their motel room, No. fourteen on the ground level.

Dean skillfully parked the Impala in front of their motel room. He turned the car off and quickly got out. Dean trotted around the front of the Impala and made his way over to the front passenger side door. Dean opened the door carefully and leaned in towards a lightly dozing Sam as he spoke.

" Sammy? Hey man, wake up." He ordered softly.

" Mmm." Groaned Sam softly as his brow knitted together in a small frown and his eyes fluttered open.

" Dean?" Asked Sam softly as he looked up at his brother with bleary eyes.

" We're at the room, you gotta get up out of the car Sammy." Explained Dean as he reached out and gently gripped Sam's upper arm.

Sam nodded mutely and forced himself to move. With Dean's help, the still recovering young man unfolded his tall frame from the front-passenger seat on the Impala and stood as much as he could.

" Easy Sammy, I got you." Said Dean softly as he made Sam lean against him and carefully guided him towards the door to their newly acquired motel room.

Sam gave a small nod of acknowledgment and cooperated with Dean as much as he could through the pain. They paused that the door so that Dean could open it before they maneuvered themselves inside the room. Dean carefully led Sam over to the queen-sized bed that was furthest inside the room and helped Sam lower himself onto the mattress.

"Hmm." Groaned Sam softly, his eye screwed tightly shut as he lay flat on his back on the bed.

" Just hold on Sammy, I'll go get you your meds." Said Dean as he quickly moved to get the pain pills the doctor had prescribed to Sam just before they had bailed from the hospital at Dartmouth.

Sam didn't open his eyes and only nodded tightly before he did his best to relax into the pillow beneath his head and breathed as deeply as his injured ribcage would allow.

With a lingering look at his brother, Dean quickly ran out of the room and headed straight from the car. Dean ran around to the truck and quickly popped it open so he could get to Sam's back. He rifled around one of the side pockets and pulled out a amber colored medical bottle filled with small, white, oval shaped pills. Clutching the bottle, Dean trotted back into their motel room and hurriedly went about getting Sam a glass of water from the small kitchen area.

Dean managed to find a small glass on the counter top by the small stove. He quickly filled it up with cold water from the sink tap before turning around and heading back to Sam's side.

" You're gonna hate me little brother, but I need you to sit up for me for a second." Said Dean, feeling guilty as he as he watched Sam open his eyes and stare at him with naked pain swirling around within their deep green depths.

" I'm not gonna hate you Dean, I know it's gotta be done." Said Sam in resignation before he gritted his teeth and began to move. Dean quickly set the glass of water and the pill bottle down on the small night stand by Sam's bed and gently looped an arm under Sam's shoulders. The older brother carefully lifted his younger sibling into a sitting position, making sure that Sam was securely propped up against the headboard of the bed before he dared to let go of the younger man.

Sam let out a slow, shaky breath before he looked up and gave Dean a small, wan smile.

Dean returned the smile with what looked more like a pained grimace before he quickly remembered about the water and the medicine. Dean quickly opened the bottle and shook out two white oval pills onto his palm. He then set the bottle down and picked up the glass of water. Sam reached out for the glass with his heavily bandaged hand, the one that had been burned by the tazer gun.

" You don't have to be so macho right now Sammy." Said Dean as he held the glass and the pills away from Sam's out-stretched hand.

Sam sent Dean one of his patented bitch-faces before he let his hand fall with a small huff.

Dean smirked in good nature before he leaned in close and brought the pills in his one hand to Sam's mouth.

" Open-wide, or should I tell you it's an air-plane?" Said Dean, watching with mild glee as Sam's bitch-face intensified ten-fold and he rolled his eyes. Dean could see that his baby brother was also fighting back a smile, and this just made Dean's heart sore.

Dean inched his hand closer to Sam's mouth. Sam looked from the offered pills, then up and Dean before he nodded and opened his mouth for Dean. Letting a small smile grace his lips, Dean gently placed the pills onto Sam's tongue. Dean then quickly brought the glass of water to Sam's lips and tilted it a little so that the water gently trickled into his baby brother's mouth. Sam took a deep sip of water from the glass and smoothly swallowed the pills down with it.

Dean quickly set the glass and the pain medication on the nightstand next to Sam's bed before he quickly turned his sole focus back to his younger sibling. Sam sat with his head bowed and his body slightly hunched over. The sight made a dull twinge lance through Dean, but his brother's broken bones and moderately severe burns weren't go to heal any faster just because he wished them gone. Dean reached out and carefully laid his hand on Sam's uninjured shoulder and spoke.

" Sammy, lay down and rest for a little while." He said softly." The meds should kick in soon."

Sam looked up to meet Dean's quietly concerned gaze, his eyes barely masking the pain radiating within them. He then lowered his gaze and nodded. Dean then began to move, reaching down to pull back the covers on Sam's bed. Once that was done, Dean smoothly lowered himself to a knee and sought out Sam's shoes. Dean quickly undid the tied laces and gently pulled the sneakers off his brother's feet.

" Thanks Dean." Said Sam softly as he gave Dean and appreciative look.

" Don't mention it." Replied Dean. " Now let's get you in bed, alright?"

Sam nodded as Dean smoothly rose to his feet and helped Sam carefully ease himself down onto the mattress.

"Wait a second, I got it." Said Dean quickly as he hooked a hand under Sam's knee and gently lifted his little brother's legs onto the bed so that as very little strain was placed on Sam's injured muscles as possible.

Sam let out a small sigh as he carefully settled himself as best he could with his body still healing from so many serious injuries.

" Just relax Sammy, the meds should kick in any moment." Said Dean as he laid a gentle, reassuring hand over the crown of his brother's head.

Sam looked up at Dean with a grateful look in his moss-green eyes as he smiled and nodded at his older brother's words. Dean allowed a small smile to curl the corners of his lips in response to Sam, but the smile withered and died rather quickly.

" Just rest Sammy." Said Dean quietly. " I'll be here."

" Thanks Dean." Said Sam, who was already starting to feel the pain medication kicking in and pulling him towards sleep.

Dean kept his hand on Sam's brow, silently watching as his baby brother's eyes began to lose focus as the medication induced drowsiness began to set in. Within the span if a few minutes Sam's eyes were drifting shut and his breath was evening out as sleep finally took hold. Dean let out a slow, calming breath before he finally willed himself to draw his hand away from Sam's head. With great care, the older brother then went about pulling the motel bed's blankets over his sleeping brother's form. Once he had Sam lightly tucked in, Dean made a b-line for the motel room door, grabbing his jacket up along the way and quickly donning it before he quietly stepped out of the room and noiselessly shut the door behind him.

Once he was outside, Dean's entire face contorted into a mask of dark, seething anger. Dean wanted nothing more than to get into the Impala, drive to the first bar he came across, and drink a tall glass of Jack Daniels. But Dean thought better other idea, knowing that Sam would need him when he woke up later. It was a double edged sword twisting inside Dean's gut. On the one hand, Dean was so angry at Sam that he could barely see straight, at the same time Dean didn't want to lay into his brother because Sam was still hurting bad, and he had gotten hurt saving a pair of innocent kids from being eaten by a nasty Rawhead.

" God, how could you be so stupid Sammy?" Whispered Dean as he stepped over to the Impala and lightly leaned against the cars hood. His hands were tight fists against his thighs as Dean mutely glared at the motel room door.

Dean let out a long hiss and tapped his foot furiously against the pavement as he tried to get his anger under control. Initially, the relief of having Sam come out of the coma he had been in for nearly two weeks had been front and center in Dean's mind, but now that a good chunk of the euphoria had faded, Dean was spitting mad at his brother for being so reckless with his life, for going after a freaking Rawhead all by himself and getting himself fried almost to a Goddamn crisp. Dean still felt the bottom of his stomach give out at the mere thought that his brother had suffered through an electric shock of nearly one thousand volts. Dean felt sick to his stomach whenever he gazed upon his brother's burnt right hand, the bruises that marred Sam's face, and how his entire left arm was currently encased in a stiff cast, and there was a brace over the left shoulder he dislocated on top of that.

Sam's injuries made Dean feel like someone hand poured ice into his veins, and the fact that he had needed to sneak his brother out of the hospital in such a bad state only made Dean feel worse. Dean was angry, confused, sickened, and many other things. As he leaned against his car with the cool, crisp air surrounding him, Dean could only ask himself one thing.

Why?

Why did all of this happen? Why did Sam go up against the Rawhead by himself? Had he been trying to get himself killed?

Why? Just why did all of this happen? Why hadn't he been there?

It was here that Dean's anger lowered from a dark boil, to a low simmer as guilt took center stage. Dean knew that he should never have parted with Sam, should never have driven away leaving his brother standing in the middle of the road. Yet, that was exactly what he had done, he had left his brother behind because he had been too hurt and angry after the while Ellicot debacle. Dean absently rubbed lightly at his chest, the bruises and wounds from the rock salt Sam had shot him with a few weeks earlier barely hurt now, almost faded completely. Just as the rock salt wounds had faded, so had Dean's anger towards Sam being the cause of them. Dean knew that what happened in that basement was Ellicot's fault, not Sam's. That evil SOB had taken every angry moment over the course of Sam's life and amplified it. Dean had actually gotten a small taste himself and had a vague inkling as to what Sam must have gone through.

Dean shook his head and heaved a deep sigh before he refocused his gaze on the door to their motel room. Dean knew full well that he and Sam needed to talk, oh man did they need to talk, but as for right now Dean needed to be by his brother's side when the kid woke up.

With this in mind, Dean pushed himself away from the hood of the Impala and started making his way back to the motel room. He noiselessly opened the door and stepped inside the room.

Sam was still conked out in his bed, looking a little pale but overall okay. Dean shed his brown leather jacket, draping it over the back of one of the chairs next to the small table in the kitchen area before he made his way over to the empty queen-sized bed. Dean sank down onto the mattress, sitting over the edge of it while he toed off his boots. Once his shoes were off, Dean swung his legs up and reclined on his bed with a small grunt. Then he reached over and picked up the T.V. remote from the nightstand that stood between his and Sam's bed. He flicked the T.V. on and immediately lowered the volume so as not to disturb Sam before he went about channel surfing. He ended up pausing on an old John Wayne movie that was playing on one of the channels. As he settled into watching the movie, Dean's eyes slowly turned to the form of his sleeping sibling laying just a few feet across from him.

He'd let Sam sleep for now, but when those moss-green eyes opened, Dean swore that he would be getting some answers out of Sam whether his little brother liked it or not.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I don't own anything Supernatural and I am not making any profits off of this story. It all belongs to the CW and Eric Kripke so, please don't sue and please don't be offended by the language or situations the characters find themselves in.

.

Chapter 10

Sam's brow knitted together in a small frown as sleep slowly lost its hold on him. His moss-green eyes fluttered open and blinked to clear away the slumber that still clung to them. Just as his vision cleared and he became rapidly aware of his surroundings, a deep, familiar voice filled Sam's ears.

" Welcome back to the land of the living there Sleeping Beauty."

Sam gingerly turned over, mindful of his still quite fresh injuries consisting of broken bones, bruises, and electrical burns, and saw Dean sitting over the edge of the queen-sized mattress that was directly across from his own. Sam's entire face morphed into a wan but warmth filled smile.

" Hey Dean."

As Sam continued his tentative movements, Dean smoothly rose from his seat on his own bed and moved the short distance to his brother's side. Dean wordlessly splayed one hand across Sam's back and gently eased Sam up all the way into a sitting position before he spoke.

" Do you need the pain pills Sammy?"

Sam shook his head.

" No Dean, it doesn't hurt as much as it was before. I'm ok."

Dean nodded before he slowly sank down over the side of Sam's bed. For several long moments, Dean said not a word, he just took in the sight of his battered and bruised younger sibling. The sight of Sam with his whole arm wrapped in a plaster cast, barely faded bruises littering his face, and his whole body slightly hunched over in obvious discomfort made all of the anger Dean had felt earlier return with full force. But Dean simply bit the inside of his cheek and reigned in his emotions as he spoke.

" Did you sleep good?" He asked.

" Yeah Dean, those pills really knocked me out." Sam answered with a small nod.

" Well, they didn't knock you out long enough to miss lunch entirely." Dean said with a small smirk, one that Sam instantly returned with a smile as he spoke.

" So what's on the menu, assuming you went ahead and got something."

" Pizza, half pepperoni, half spinach."

Sam immediately chuckled at Dean's considerate move to order pizza with equal parts of their respective favorite toppings. But no sooner had Sam started chuckling, his still damaged ribs voiced their protest loud and clear. With a small groan, Sam carefully lowered himself back down into his bed and breathed through the sudden onset of dull pain. Dean, naturally concerned, was instantly hovering over Sam as he spoke.

" Sammy, is it the ribs? Are you alright? Talk to me man."

Sam let out a small groan as he lowered himself back down onto his bed before he met his big brother's concerned gaze and replied.

" Y-Yeah, I'm okay. Just can't laugh all that much with the way my ribs are."

Dean nodded in sympathy before he spoke.

" What was so funny in the first place?"

At this Dean watched as Sam's pained featured softened minutely into a smile, his deep dimples peaking out slightly as the younger brother spoke.

" My big brother being so sweet and considerate when he orders pizza for me."

Dean was stunned silent for a moment, and then with a small huff he was rolling his eyes and barely keeping himself from grinning like a total loon as he spoke.

" Oh shut it, it's not like we've never had half pepperoni half spinach pizza before."

" Still, thanks Dean." Sam said quietly, meaning it whole-heartedly as he continued to smile at his brother.

Dean for his part, felt a small, tell-tale twinge in his chest at the look Sam was giving him. It instantly reminded him of bygone days, when things were still simple and there was no need for bravado or manliness. The brothers remained in this silence for a long moment before Dean moved to defuse things.

" Well, don't mention it Samantha. Now enough with this estrogen trip."

Dean then moved towards Sam.

" Here, let's get you sitting up. You can't exactly eat lunch laying on your back."

" Well I could try." Sam countered deadpan.

Dean let out a small chuckle at that before he carefully helped Sam up into the aforementioned sitting position. Once Sam was propped up against the headboard of his bed, as comfortable as he could get considering the state of his body, Dean plopped down on his own bed,switched on the motel T.V. and started surfing through the channels until he found a football game in progress.

A good ten minutes into watching the game there was a knock at the door signaling the arrival of the much anticipated pizza that Dean had ordered. It also didn't hurt that the one delivering said pizza was a cute brunette.

Sam sat back against the headboard of his bed, barely keeping himself from snorting as he watched Dean put on the charm for the young lady at the door as he paid for their lunch. By the end of it all, Dean and Sam had their pizza and the delivery girl left with a beaming smile and a pretty good tip.

Dean walked over to Sam's bed and set the pizza box down in the space between them as he took a seat and spoke.

" Alright, let's dig in."

Sam didn't need to be told twice as he grabbed up a slice from the side of the pie that was topped with spinach. The brothers ate there respective slices of pizza in a relatively comfortable silence, until Dean switched on the T.V. and started flipping through the channels until he landed on some cheesy, One Life To Live-esque soap opera that was on. Sam groaned, while Dean simply grinned and pumped up the volume as some bleached blonde started weeping and taking out loud to herself in the way that some soap opera actors delivered their dialogue. For the most part, Sam didn't really mind the soap opera, knowing that this was one of Dean's ways of being playful, and just plain old Dean. It was just two brothers having lunch and watching whatever was on T.V.

Once Sam had eaten his fill, Dean helped him take another round of pain meds before helping the still injured young man get as comfortable as he could with his broken arm and cracked ribs. By the end of it, Sam was propped up against the headboard of his bed with only a small grimace of pain on his face.

" Hey Dean, could you hand me my laptop please?" Sam asked as he looked up at his big brother.

" Sure Sammy." Dean replied as he stepped over to Sam's bags to get the aforementioned laptop.

" It's Sam." Sam countered with a small grin, one that Dean returned with a scoff and a matching grin over his shoulder as he bent down to dig through one of Sam's bags.

A few moments later Dean was handing Sam his laptop before going back to his own bed where he promptly propped himself up against his own headboard and started channel surfing. But as he sat there facing the T.V. Dean was stealing quick glances at his brother who was fast becoming absorbed in his own surfing on the web. As he silently watched Sam, Dean remembered that there were still many questions he had that had not yet been answered, like why in the Hell had Sam gone and done something so massively stupid as going after that Raw-Head all by himself and had nearly gotten killed for doing so. Like before, Dean made a silent vow that he would get the answers he wanted out of Sam, one way or another.

Right now all Dean could do was wait for the right moment for his intended confrontation.

The rest of the day passed by without much drama after that with Dean keeping a sharp eye on Sam who did his best not to aggravate his still tender injuries. It was just after sunset that Dean remembered what the doctor had said before he had booked from the hospital with Sam, that the bandages around Sam's burned hand would need to be changed.

" Sammy, I gotta change the bandages." Dean said after he had retrieved the med-kit from his duffel.

" Sure Dean." Sam said quietly, not looking forward to the attention that would soon be paid to his injured hand.

Dean sat down over the side of Sam's bed and pulled out the surgical scissors from the kit. Dean wordlessly gestured for Sam's bandaged hand, and gently took it in his own when Sam held it out for him. Starting from the very base of Sam's palm where the bandage started, Dean carefully slipped one of the scissor blade under the white bandage and began to gently cut his way through the gauze.

Through out this Sam did his best remain as still as possible, his hand was still quite tender from the electrical burns the taser had caused, and the slight pull on the gauze from the scissors was aggravating the sensitive skin. It was like an itchy and tingly sensation that Sam knew he just could not scratch no mater how strong the urge.

" Is it hurting?" Dean asked without looking up from his cutting, having made it nearly half-way through.

" No, it just itches a little." Sam answered.

" Has it been hurting since we got here though?" Dean asked, looking up for a moment to pin Sam with a look.

" No Dean, it's been okay for the most part, just sensitive." Sam answered honestly.

" Well you're always sensitive." Dean muttered good-naturedly as he brought his gaze back down to Sam's hand.

" Shut up you jerk." Sam grinned.

" Make me bitch." Dean snarked back with smirk as he continued his delicate work.

A few minutes later, Sam was wincing slightly as his hand was freed of its gauze wrapping. The sensation of cool air against his scorched skin had Sam gritting his teeth a bit, but he made no complaints. Dean made quick work of reapplying anti-bacterial ointment to Sam's burned palm and fingers before he picked up the fresh roll of gauze from the open med kit and set to work re-wrapping Sam's hand with expert ease. Dean especially careful when he wrapped Sam's fingers one by one before getting to his palm, and then wrapping it all up into a neat binding.

It was as he was packing up the med-kit that Dean caught sight of Sam's appreciative gaze, and it filled him with both warmth, but also the anger of before. Sam should never have needed to have his hand bound in gauze, or have to be careful about his ribs, or the bandage that was still around his head from the knock to his skull. Sam should not be in the situation they were in now, Hell, they both were not supposed to be this way.

Dean got up and made his way over to his bag so he could put the med-kit away. He then turned back around to face Sam. The moment Dean turned back around, Sam felt his heart speed up and a sense of knowing dread descended over him in a matter of seconds.

Dean didn't have to say a single word, Sam knew instantly that his brother wanted answers, and that he was going to get them one way or another.

" D-Dean I-" Sam began when Dean held up his hand, firm and solid as he stared at Sam.

Sam licked suddenly dry lips and did his best not to avert his eyes from Dean's sharp jade gaze. Dean wordlessly dropped his hand and made his way over to Sam's bed. He slowly took his seat over the side of the bed beside Sam where he was propped up against the headboard.

A beat of silence passed between the brother, a beat that seemed to span almost a life-age before Dean finally spoke.

" You went after a freaking Raw-Head without any back-up, and I don't find out about it until a scared little girl calls me using your phone, and when I get to where you were at, I find you beat to Hell, the doc tells me that you were electrocuted and in a Goddamn coma that you might never wake up from." He seethed from where he stood, staring down at Sam with hard eyes.

Sam wanted to sink into the floor and he looked away from Dean's furious gaze. The moment he had turned his head away however, Sam let out a small noise of surprise when he felt a hand gently, but firmly grip him by the chin and slowly forced him to turn his head back around face Dean.

His brother had taken a seat over the edge of the bed now, so they were eye to eye as Dean spoke, his gaze no longer so hard but still searching.

" Sammy, what the Hell were you thinking going after that thing by yourself? I know that we were both angry when we split up on the road that night, but what you did after was beyond reckless, you damn near got yourself killed and I want to know why. Why did you do this Sam?" He asked as he let go of Sam's chin.

Sam felt the backs of his eyes starting to burn as he forced himself to meet Dean's gaze as he took a deep breath and spoke.

" It was better me than you Dean."

There was a beat of silence before Dean spoke, his whole face a confused frown.

" What the hell do you mean by that Sam?"

Sam bit his lower lip before he took a deep, shaky breath and replied.

" I did what I did because... because it wasn't supposed to be me that got electrocuted while hunting the Raw-Head." Sam said softly.

" Sam what?" Dean began, his heart pounding loud in his own ears, when Sam shook his head and cut him off.

" I had a vision a few days before we went to Roosevelt Asylum. I saw you going up against that Raw-Head, trying to save the same two kids, and I saw you get fried. I saw it all happen, and then everything at the Asylum happened, and Dad called, and you were so pissed at me, so I egged you on into leaving me there on the road so I could stop it and-"

It was here that Dean held up a rigid hand, instantly silencing Sam. Dean's green eyes were blazing in disbelief as he stared Sam unblinking as he spoke.

" Are you telling me that you fought with me on the road on purpose, that you did all of this on purpose because of a vision you had that you didn't tell me about?" Dean growled.

Sam was silent as he averted his gaze and nodded.

" I saw you die Dean, I saw the electricity from the taser going through your body, and then you were just laying there in a pool of muddy water. I couldn't let that happen so I did what I had to."

There was a long, insufferably long beat of silence before Dean, with eyes wide with horror, spoke.

" So all of it, all that crap you said to me that night was so that I would leave you there, so you could take on that thing instead of me, so that you got fried instead of me? You took my place?" He asked in disbelief.

Sam couldn't bring himself to say a word, his throat constricted to the point of agony as his face crumbled.

" Dean I... I'm sorry I-" Sam began but Dean held up his hand, his eyes hard like ice as he spoke.

" Why Sam, why didn't you tell me?" He asked, his voice deceptively calm as he waited for an answer.

Sam looked away and shut his eyes, his jaws trembling as his voice refused to work. He let out a small gasp as a firm but surprisingly gentle hand gripped him by the chin and forced him to look back up.

" Answer me." Dean order, his voice and the look on his face holding no room for argument. Taking in a deep, rattling breath Sam spoke.

" Like I said, it was better me that you. You're my brother, what else did you expect me to do?" He said as a tear spilled free from his pain-filled eyes.

Dean hand fell away from his brother's jaw, his face devoid of emotion, which was ten-times more terrifying than if he had started screaming and raging at the top of his lungs. The older Winchester started to slowly back away, further and further from Sam as a haunted look now began to spread across his face.

" Dean-" Sam began to say, reaching out to his older brother, but Dean just mutely shook his head before he turned away and grabbed his leather coat from where it hung on a nearby chair.

" Dean where are you going?" Sam asked, terror filling his heart. Dean seemed to sense this as he turned back to his brother and wordlessly made his way back to Sam's side.

He leaned down close so that he was eye to eye with same as he spoke.

" Don't you dare think that I am bailin' on you, or that this means that I want you gone. I am gonna go for a drive, and when I come back to this room you better be here, cause if you aren't I will kick your ass straight to kingdom come and then back again, i don't care how wrecked you already are." Dean said softly, but his words may as well have been blasted through a speaker.

" Do you get me little brother?" Dean asked quietly.

Feeling a few more tears spill from his eyes, Sam nodded his bandaged head and spoke.

" Y-Yeah Dean I get you, I'll be here when you get back, I promise." He said with some difficulty.

Dean gave another nod before he reached out and gave Sam's uninjured shoulder a reassuring squeeze, having no doubt that Sam could feel how much his hand was trembling when he did so. Then Dean forced himself away, quickly donned his jacket and all but ran from the room as fast as he could. Sam let out a shaky breath as he heard the familiar rumble of the Impala coming to life, and then the sound of her tires as Dean pulled her out of her parking spot in front of the room and drove off to God only knows where.

Sam sat propped up against the headboard of his bed, in the silence of the room save for his own shaky breathing.

" God Dean I'm so sorry." Sam whispered sadly, but he did not blame Dean for going as he did.

Dean needed the space and Sam would give it to him, and besides that Dean had said in clear words that he was in no way leaving him. With this in mind, Sam let out a small groan and gingerly moved his still healing body so that he lay down on his bed, flat on his back. He focused on breathing so as not to aggravate his mending ribs and settled in for what would be a while. But Sam would wait the rest of the night if he had to, he would be there when Dean came back.

Dean sat behind the wheel of the Impala, using every ounce of his will not to gun the engine and speed through the small town they had stopped in. The last thing they needed was a cop pulling him over. Dean kept in control until he was out of the town, and then he gunned the engine hard as he was on the highway. As he drove at breakneck speed, Dean let out harsh breath after harsh breath, the revelation of what his brother had done washing over him like ice water.

The kid had lied to him sure, but had done so to take his place, to save him from the rawhead. Every broken bone Sam was now having to deal with was supposed to be his, hell the coma, the wounds, all of it was supposed to be his. With a loud yell Dean slammed his fist into the dashboard and then with tired screeching he pulled the Impala off the main road and onto the leave covered dirt that was at its side. The Impala's engine grumbled lowly before Dean jerkily turned off ignition and then just sat there.

_As he sat there, Dean felt Sam's words bounce around his skull. _

_Better me than you Dean_

_it wasn't supposed to be me that got electrocuted _

_I had a vision _

_I egged you on into leaving me there on the road so I could stop it_

_I saw you die_

_I saw the electricity from the taser going through your body, and then you were just laying there in a pool of muddy water. I couldn't let that happen so I did what I had to_

_Better me that you Dean._

_You're my brother, what else did you expect me to do?_

Dean's vision blurred and he finally let go of his tenuous grasp on control and shattered. Dean Winchester, the hunter of all things supernatural sat in his car on the side of the road and bawled his eyes out. He didn't know for how long he sat there, how many minute, maybe even how many hours, but when he was finally done, Dean wiped his eyes and turned the Impala's ignition back on. He then turned the car around and headed back into town.

He had made a promise and exacted a promise in return, it was time he kept his end.

The drive back to town was equal parts too fast and not fast enough but sooner rather than later, Dean found himself pulling up into the motel parking lot he had left earlier. Dean couldn't hold back a tired smile when he noticed that the light was still on in their room. Dean got out the the Impala once he had parked it once more and fished out the keys to the room from his jacket pocket. He quietly opened the door and let himself in.

The sight that greeted him made Dean's smile widen. They on the bed was Sam, he had propped himself up against the head board and looked up sharply from the laptop he was typing away on slowly at the sound of the door opening.

" Dean." Sam breathed, a bright, relieved smile spreading across his face.

Dean closed the door behind him and without another word made his way over to Sam, gently pulled the laptop away from the younger man and then promptly seized him in a tight but gentle hug.

" I know why you did it Sammy, I now but if you every do this to me again, I will kill you myself." Dean said softly against Sam's shoulder.

" Okay Dean, whatever you want, just don't ever go away like that again, you were gone for three hours." Sam said just as softly as he hugged his brother back as best he could with his arm that he could still move.

" Oh and one more thing, what we're doin' right now, this never happened, you got me?" Dean said with a chuckle.

" Yeah Dean, I got you." Sam said with a grin of his own.

They were Winchesters after all, they didn't do chick-flick... Well, that's not true, maybe they did do a little chick-flick every now and then.

" Bitch." Dean said as he tightened his hold around Sam.

" Jerk." Sam said back as he closed his eyes and kept smiling.

The End


End file.
